


As The Sun Grows High

by FiveTail



Series: Coming Home [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Post-Sburb/Sgrub
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-03-15
Updated: 2012-03-15
Packaged: 2017-11-01 23:44:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/362605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiveTail/pseuds/FiveTail
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[HIATUS] In which an unfinished game session brings the survivors to question stability within the new universe.</p><p>Chapter 01:<br/>Closure comes in the form of radiant white hair, light grey skin kissed by the faded aftereffect of grimdarkness, and lavender irises that could pen poetry with a glance. She is rough edges sharpened to fine points, she is curt sarcasm blanketed beneath false charm. Her words dance as pawns across a chess board where she reigns several moves ahead. You don't know what she's been through within the past five years, but she carries the weight of it in her eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As The Sun Grows High

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday to me!
> 
> Let's begin this, shall we?

**== > [[s]](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfYK8wvvU90) Kanaya: Still care.**

Tell me everything that happened, tell me everything you saw.  
They had lights inside their eyes, they had lights inside their eyes.

CG: IT'S A GOOD THING YOU CONSULTED ME. I'VE SEEN THIS EXACT SCENARIO PLAY OUT HUNDREDS OF TIMES BEFORE.  
GA: Watching Romantic Movies Does Not Count As Life Experience  
CG: OKAY WOW  
CG: DO YOU WANT MY HELP OR NOT?  
GA: I  
GA: Yes  
CG: THEN PAY ATTENTION.  
CG: WE GOT SPLIT UP PRETTY SUDDENLY WHEN WE KILLED JACK AND GOT THROWN INTO THIS HUMAN-TROLL MIXED POPULATION SLASH BUCKETFEST WE CALL OUR NEW WORLD.  
CG: BUT NOW THANKS TO A CERTAIN SOMEONE, EVERYONE'S RECEIVED AN INVITATION TO AN IMPROMPTU SGRUB REUNION WHERE IT'S SUDDENLY MANDATORY FOR ALL OF US TO REMINGLE INTO ONE ANOTHER'S BUSINESS FOR OLD TIME'S SAKE LIKE NOSTALGIC PARTY CONE WEARING SINGLE CELLED ORGANISMS LOAFING IN PRIMORDIAL SLUDGE BLOWING CELEBRATORY NOISEMAKERS INTO THE OOZE.  
CG: IT'S AWKWARD AND UNCOMFORTABLE BUT WE'RE CILIA DEEP IN SLIME AND THERE'S NO EVOLVING BACK.  
GA: Sollux  
CG: WHAT?  
GA: It Was Thanks To Sollux We Reconnected With The Humans  
CG: YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?  
GA: I Understand He Has Been Courting Jade Behind Your Back But There Is No Need To Be Upset  
CG: I AM NOT FUCKING UPSET. DO I LOOK FUCKING UPSET TO YOU?  
CG: EVERYTHING IS PEACHY FUCKING KEEN OVER HERE.  
CG: WHY THE HELL SHOULD I CARE? TEREZI'S MY MATESPRIT, REMEMBER? JADE TURNED ME DOWN SWEEPS AGO BEFORE WE EVEN LANDED IN THIS UNIVERSE. I DON'T GIVE A SHIT WHAT SOLLUX DOES.  
CG: JADE AND SOLLUX CAN GO GET HUMAN MARRIED AND PARTAKE IN HUMAN REPRODUCTION IN ORDER TO HAVE LISPING BUCKTOOTHED HYBRID NERDY OFFSPRING FOR ALL I GIVE A FLAPHUFFING FUCK.  
CG: WHATEVER ANY OF THAT HUMAN STUFF EVEN ENTAILS!!  
GA: Um  
CG: ANYWAY.  
CG: THE POINT IS IT'S BEEN TWO AND A HALF SWEEPS SINCE WE LAST INTERACTED WITH THE HUMANS, NOT COUNTING THE LAST COUPLE OF PERIGEES SINCE WE TRACKED THEM DOWN AGAIN.  
CG: I MEAN COUPLE OF MONTHS. WHATEVER.  
CG: BECAUSE OF THIS IT'S PERFECTLY NORMAL FOR THEIR PRESENCE TO EVOKE RESIDUAL FEELINGS FROM ALL THAT TIME AGO.  
CG: BUT JOHN AND ROSE HAVE BEEN HUMAN BOYFRIEND AND GIRLFRIEND FOR PROBABLY ABOUT AS LONG AS WE'VE ALL BEEN SEPARATED. THAT'S AROUND FIVE HUMAN YEARS. YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THEIR RELATIONSHIP ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE ANYTIME SOON.  
CG: ALL YOU NEED IN ORDER TO SEPARATE YOURSELF FROM YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT ROSE IS TO ATTAIN SOME PROPER FUCKING CLOSURE.  
GA: Karkat  
GA: All I Asked Was Whether Or Not You Believe I Should Accept Her Invitation To Tea  
CG: KANAYA.  
CG: GO GET YOUR FUCKING CLOSURE.  
GA: So  
GA: Yes Then  
CG: ABSOLUTELY.

-

Closure comes in the form of radiant white hair, light grey skin kissed by the faded aftereffect of grimdarkness, and lavender irises that could pen poetry with a glance. She is rough edges sharpened to fine points, she is curt sarcasm blanketed beneath false charm. Her words dance as pawns across a chess board where she reigns several moves ahead. You don't know what she's been through within the past five years, but she carries the weight of it in her eyes.

When teatime rolls around, she shows you to a seat in the living room of John's house, the place where she'd been living for quite some time. You rest your platter of homemade pastries on the living room table. Karkat had dashed at top-speed to deliver them to you that morning moments after you left your hive; skin flushed as he hunched over to catch his breath, he shoved the plate shaped like Santa Claus's head into your hands, wheezing something about "housewarming" gifts being customary in human culture. The fluffy cream-filled dessert was much a more positive result than your culinary inadequacy could've ever hoped to provide. You didn't even know Karkat could bake.

The furniture you've laid eyes on so far has all been very generic. Plain. Blocky. _Clashing_. It gave you the odd, eerie vibe you were in the middle of a very large dollhouse. The cushion of the white couch you're sitting on has a paper tag buried in its crevice, bearing the word "EKTORP".

Rose draws a sip from her porcelain cup while she catches you staring.

John likes to build. He's similar to Jade that way.

I Take It He Purchases Raw Materials With Which To Construct Your Items Of Furniture From Scratch

Heavens, no. They're prepackaged parts that come with instruction manuals.

I've been sure to facilitate this newfound hobby of his in any way I can.

By Purchasing The Entire Prepackaged Store

John does so like to build.

The dollhouse around you fades into a more realistic clarity, and there is passive-aggressiveness tucked between the do-it-yourself lighting fixtures and anchored wooden shelves.

You drink your tea in silence. She drinks her tea in amusement.

-

You only ever see John in passing.

From what Aradia recently told you, your former Sburb/Sgrub session left bare traces within the new universe, certain monstrous elements that had to be dealt with before issues became more severe. John had taken it upon himself and his salamander consort to track down these entities on a local scale, wielding little more than a peculiar outfit, a funny-looking backpack, and a device Jade built for him, something he faithfully called a Psychokinetic Energy Meter.

If you arrive early enough on Sundays, you catch John pressing a small kiss to Rose's cheek before he leaves the house. He bounds down the porch and snatches a dessert from your plate; he then greets you with a welcome and a warm smile before throwing on the most obnoxious pair of goggles you've ever seen.

Casey waddles behind him in toe, matching outfit and all.

Invitation evolves into tradition.

You are welcome in the Egbert-Lalonde household and you have no objection to the development.

-

Karkat refuses to bake you any more pastries until you return his Santa platter.

-

And what's this?

Rose looks on with curiosity at the large basket you have in your hands instead of the confection you normally bring to her doorstep. For a moment, you're afraid you've transgressed an unwritten rule of human etiquette. You explain yourself quickly before she has a chance to slam the door in your face.

Sewing Supplies

I Thought Perhaps We Could Do Something More Constructive This Week Than Discuss Your Questionable Choice In Decor

She lets you inside with a smirk.

-

You learn Rose Lalonde smiles when she sews. 

It's a small, modest smile that content humming would normally fall behind, but there is no melody to her breath. Weariness wears at the corners of thin, slightly pursed lips. Shadows shade the skin beneath her eyes, growing darker and darker as the weeks drift by. You do your best to ignore it, no matter how badly you're tempted to dig and dig and dig and dig until finally you strike her darkness.

She kneels comfortably at the machine resting atop the generic, blocky living room table, continuing the day's lesson you gave her in sewing.

Do you ever find yourself visiting a barren place for the sole sake of thinking in peace?

You're sitting on the EKTORP with your legs folded and your hands clumsily fumbling with needles far too large for your precision handling. You are most at home when you are in control of a needle and thread. The enigma of needle and yarn is lost on you.

Of Course

My Respiteblock Serves As My Most Frequent Retreat

Nowadays It Seems To Be Getting Increasingly Difficult To Find A Quiet Place

She makes an absent, aloof noise in response.

You have the sudden urge to improve your reply.

Around A Sweep Ago I Found A Pond Not Too Far From My Hive

Admittedly It Was Much Less A Pond And Much More A Glorified Puddle Yet It Still Managed To Carry Life

Frogs To Be Exact

She doesn't quite look at you, but you know she's paying attention.

I Used To Visit Often And Sit By The Brink To Read Or Sew Or Clean Out My Chainsaw

At The Time It Seemed To Be The Only Place Where I Could Properly Hear My Own Thoughts

It Was Quite Peaceful There

I Enjoyed It

Your knitting needle slips, and you poke yourself in the wrist.

Fiddlesticks

The sewing machine on the table rumbles to a stop. Rose rises to her feet.

The couch cushion sinks as you feel her take a seat next to you. You notice her staring down at your project--a poor, lumpy excuse of green and purple yarn--and you can feel the smug judgement emanating from her very being.

Second only to my first knitting attempt, that is honestly one of the ugliest scarves I have ever seen.

Is It Not Absolutely Hideous

She rests delicate, grey-tinted hands atop slender luminescent white, pressing her fingers into yours and guiding the proper knitting motions along. You would be paying much closer attention to the pattern if you hadn't noticed her trembling.

Whats The Matter

She removes her hands from yours at once, but remains collected.

What do you mean?

Your Hands Were Shaking Just Then

That must have been your imagination. Why on earth would my hands be shaking?

I Dont Know But I Know What I Felt

Odd.

Are you certain it wasn't your own hands that were shaking?

I Require A Steady Hand For All My Work

Tell Me Whats Wrong

Kanaya, you're being ridiculous. There's nothing wrong.

Ive Spent Too Much Time Moderating Between Parties More Convincing Than You To Believe That

Perhaps you are trying too hard to meddle in affairs that aren't any of your concern.

Your Wellbeing Is My Concern

Why Wont You Discuss Whats Bothering You

We Are Friends Arent We

Not the kind you seem to think we are.

It takes you a moment to realize the stabbing sensation you feel wasn't the fault of another misaimed knitting needle.

You are falling into an old pattern you've sworn off sweeps ago.

You don't return to her house next Sunday.

-

\-- ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering grimAuxiliatrix [GA] \--

EB: jeeeez, kanaya, what did you do to rose?  
GA: Pardon  
EB: all she ever does in her spare time anymore is sew!  
EB: i am beginning to seriously miss her knitting. needles aren't half as loud as a sewing machine.  
EB: you owe me a month's worth of comfy knitted purple goods.  
GA: Ill Keep That In Mind  
EB: hehehe, okay.  
EB: um.  
EB: hey kanaya?  
GA: Yes  
EB: i know this isn't my place or anything and i feel kind of skeevy even bringing it up but...  
EB: between you and me?  
EB: i think rose really misses you coming over to do cool clothes stuff together.  
GA: I Fail To See How That Is My Problem  
EB: well you guys were really good friends.  
EB: you used to come over every week and rose used to go over to your house for sleepovers all the time.  
GA: Rose Has Never Stepped Foot In My Hive John  
EB: ...oh. weird.  
EB: i wonder where she's been running off to every night then?  
EB: oh man now i'm really worried...  
EB: rose won't even tell me what happened between you two, but i'm sure you guys can work it out if you just talked to each other!  
EB: then you can go back to being best galpals.  
EB: and i can start getting knitted goods again.  
EB: everybody wins!  
GA: If She Wishes To Reconcile Our Differences She Knows My Handle  
GA: Now If Youll Excuse Me I Have A Chainsaw To Polish

\-- grimAuxiliatrix [GA] ceased pestering ectoBiologist [EB] \--

EB: :(

-

Karkat is extremely rude when he asks you about his Santa platter. 

Your response leads to him not speaking to you for the next few days.

-

One of the more positive side effects about being a Rainbow Drinker was the fact you were your own booklight. You were free to stay awake until the pitch-dark hours, sitting up on your sofa, reading the romance-novel-of-the-moment by the light from the hands you used to hold it up. 

A Trollchum notification noise from the open husktop on the nightstand beside you breaks your midnight tranquility.

Lavender has not appeared on your screen in nearly a perigee.

Two lines appear, and your blood runs cold.

TT: I still have the Thorns of Oglogoth.  
TT: They speak to me in my sleep.

You set your book aside.

GA: Continue  
TT: I'm not really sure how to phrase this.  
TT: For some mysterious reason the nature of this information tends to be stupendously irrelevant in day to day conversation so I've never been given reason to explain it to anyone before.  
GA: Try Anyway  
TT: I have reason to believe the Thorns act as a conduit to the Noble Circle.  
TT: The Dark Ones were not able to traverse into our new universe alongside us, yet elements of our old session still have specific points directly linked to things that can be found in this very universe.  
TT: The old session has a web cast upon this dimension. The Thorns serve one of its many strings.  
TT: The Noble Circle has been sending me transmissions since we landed here. They were lost in translation and reinterpreted into simplified nightmares, nothing I haven't been conditioned to expect during the span of my grimdarkness in-game.  
TT: But they've been getting stronger as of late. More disturbing.  
GA: How So  
TT: Something is being weaved into the dreams. Something that wasn't there before.  
TT: The signals were once scrambled messages, but now I can very clearly hear them calling out for me. I've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out why.  
TT: Eventually, I realized I received much stronger signals from a place I've purposefully avoided for years. The architectural copypasta of my mother's house this dimension initially granted me as a place to live.  
GA: Is That Where Youve Been Running Off Several Nights To Stay  
TT: I don't need to sleep to have the visions anymore.  
TT: I can see the game. I can see my friends in horrific danger.  
TT: Each night I spend at this house, I feel as if I'm one step closer to learning how to stop all this from happening.  
GA: Each Night You Spend There Has You Wasting Away  
GA: Are You There Right Now  
TT: I am.  
GA: Shit  
GA: Okay  
GA: Far Be It For Me To Tell You What You Should And Should Not Be Doing Because We Both Know How Effective That Is  
TT: Of course.  
GA: But Whatever Association Is Linked Within That Structure  
GA: The Fact Remains Its Draining The Life From You And As An Intelligent Woman For Your Own Safety You Must Entertain The Idea That Perhaps That Is Exactly What They Are Planning  
GA: Perhaps They Are Calling For Your Return To The Darkness  
TT: They are entitled to do so if they wish.  
GA: They Are Entitled To No Such Thing  
TT: I gifted them my soul on a silver platter, Kanaya.  
GA: All The Better Reason Not To Do It Again  
GA: Rose  
GA: Are You There

\-- tentacleTherapist [TT] has become an idle chum! --

GA: Damn It

-

Another one of the more positive side effects about being a Rainbow Drinker was the fact it was impossible for you to run out of breath. 

You slip your lipstick tube into your pocket and run as fast as your feet would carry you.

-

There is the perpetual blinding flicker of orange, and red. 

There is the crackling sound of wood and foundation giving way to natural forces.

There is a silhouette standing at the far edge of the nearby forest cliff, away from the direct influence of smoke and flame.

There is a poor, lumpy excuse of green and purple wrapped loosely around her neck.

The Thorns of Oglogoth are at the mercy of Rose's tightened grasp as her clenched fists rest to her sides. She is looking out upon the waters below and does not move when your bright, willowy form approaches to stand by her side.

She has burned her former home down a hundred feet away, and she speaks with the tone of one commenting on the weather.

I still have your pastry platter.

You allow yourself a soft noise of amusement.

Feel Free To Keep It As A Housewarming Gift

The thick scent of smoke hovers in the air.

Kanaya?

Yes

Whatever happened to that frog pond you visited?

The roof caves in with a loud crash.

It Was Paved Over To Make Room For A Parking Lot

You are treated to the sound of her laughter for the first time since you've met.

Her giggles shatter the midnight air, crisp and whole and _honest_ , syncing dangerously with the background harmony of crackling fire and collapsing walls.

Closure comes in the form of stark white hair threading smoothly between your glowing fingers, light grey skin kissed by the faded aftereffect of grimdarkness pressing still-warm to your cheek, and lavender irises that level your gaze and turn you to stone.

The firelight sparks in her eyes, and she is beautiful.

-

GA: Well  
GA: Fuck  
CG: o:B  



End file.
